(The family of Kirushna Kumar Kanagarat travelled from Sri Lanka, the U.K and France for his funeral service in Markham on Sunday. [Adrian Cheung/CBC])
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Family angry, tearful at visitation for alleged Bruce McArthur victim

Nov. 25, 2018

"Tears streaking his cheeks, Kishokumar Kanagaratnam was doubled over on his brother’s casket, at times pounding it with his fist. He was crying out, anger and grief spewing from his mouth.

In his native Tamil, over and over, he screamed questions, asking how Canada could let his brother to be killed, why he hadn’t been taken care of. When he finally began walking away from the casket, he collapsed to the ground, mourners rushing to his aid....

(The family of Kirushna Kumar Kanagarat travelled from Sri Lanka, the U.K and France for his funeral service in Markham on Sunday. [Adrian Cheung/CBC])
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Family angry, tearful at visitation for alleged Bruce McArthur victim

Nov. 25, 2018

"Tears streaking his cheeks, Kishokumar Kanagaratnam was doubled over on his brother’s casket, at times pounding it with his fist. He was crying out, anger and grief spewing from his mouth.

In his native Tamil, over and over, he screamed questions, asking how Canada could let his brother to be killed, why he hadn’t been taken care of. When he finally began walking away from the casket, he collapsed to the ground, mourners rushing to his aid....

"“Why did Canada kill you?” the brother of the murdered Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam repeatedly called out in Tamil, hugging the coffin at his funeral on Sunday. How did he become a victim of alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur?

These are good questions, always asked when the hunt for a possible serial killer begins, whether in Sri Lanka, Canada or the U.S. How could it have been allowed to happen? And are there changes that will make it less likely to happen again?
Serial killers are figures from nightmares; we expect such psychopathic creatures to vanish with daylight. But there they are and always will be. It’s a game of chance. When the police don’t know you’re missing or can’t be bothered to search for anyone with a “high-risk” lifestyle, they have helped make you a perfect victim...."

The trial for alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur is set to run in just over a year.
On January 6th, 2020, McArthur will be tried for eight counts of first degree murder. The trial could run as long as four months.

Fb reminded me that 4 years ago, through a tremendous effort and much help from friends and journalists, I was able to get my brother Jon Riley listed in the RCMP national database of missing persons and onto the RCMP website of missing persons. Back then, I didn’t know there was an internal (CPIC) police database, and a separate RCMP database. It didn’t occur to me that Jon wasn’t listed when we first reported him missing. Jon wasn’t listed in CPIC or the RCMP database for 1 year and 8 months after he disappeared. It shouldn’t be this hard. All of the databases (regional, provincial and national) need to be connected. Every missing persons report needs to be recorded the first time and entered into one database. As long as the system is this broken, killers like McArthur can keep murdering. The police don’t have any dots to connect. At the bare minimum, missing persons need to be recorded and those records need to be accessible by every member of law enforcement across Canada.

Remembering the missing men allegedly killed by Bruce McArthur a year after his arrest

Jan. 17, 2019

"Karen Fraser remembers the exact moment police told her she had to vacate her home on a calm Leaside crescent. It fixed her house as ground zero in an expansive police investigation and the focal point of a horrifying international story.

On the morning of January 18, 2018, police arrested Bruce McArthur, the man who landscaped the yard of her home on Mallory Crescent and is now charged with killing eight men with ties to Toronto’s Gay Village. ...

...as the anniversary of the arrival of the police approached, Fraser and Smith decided they needed to do something to acknowledge it.

“On the day when everyone’s thinking: ‘It’s been a year?’ — and then they wouldn’t quite know what to do with their reaction — we thought we need something to mark the day,” Fraser said in an interview this week.

And so, at 10:25 a.m. Friday, which is the same time Fraser was ordered out of her home and when McArthur was arrested, a lone bag piper will play a lament for the victims on her driveway.

It will be a simple, wordless acknowledgment that a year has passed — “for crimes that are beyond words, there will be no words from us,” Fraser said....

Idsinga led the investigation that resulted in the arrest of an alleged serial killer who preyed on men with ties to the city's Gay Village. The story caught the attention of the world, and forced Idsinga into the eye of a media firestorm.

But of all the moments in a wild year, one stands out above all: when police "cracked open" garden planters containing the remains of seven of eight of Bruce McArthur's alleged victims.

"It was a big dose of reality — a big dose of reality about what we were dealing with, and what had been going on in the city," Idsinga said Friday morning."
"But the day police examined the planters at a Toronto morgue changed everything, Idsinga said. It made him and the force acknowledge the ugly truth that "this whole serial killer scenario is real," he recalled."

‘Significant development’ coming in Bruce McArthur case
"McArthur is set to be in a courtroom — moved from College Park Courts to the larger courthouse at 361 University Ave. — shortly after 9:30 a.m. On Monday, Toronto Police issued a press release at noon saying “a significant development in this case is expected.” Cops also spelled out provisions for media parking, clearly anticipating a large turnout.

So far, McArthur’s lawyer, Edward Royle, has not commented on what could happen at Tuesday’s court date."

"If there is a decision to offer a guilty plea, “the judge could set another court date to give family time to prepare victim impact statements,” a justice source told the Sun.

Sources also say some of the victims’ family members are preparing to be in court Tuesday to witness what actually does transpire."

I wondered about that too, but would the police be the ones to report that? Wouldn't such information come from his defense lawyer? I guess we will find out in the morning ... if we don't freeze to death before then. My goodness, it's cold here!

Former homicide detective Mike Davis tells me, in his experience, “a significant development in this case” likely means Bruce McArthur will be pleading guilty to all counts in court Tuesday. Davis says the victims’ families would have already been told by police @globalnewstoCatherine McDonald on Twitter